


Egg Dye and Cinnamon Rolls

by MacBeth13



Series: Twitterpated Series [2]
Category: Castle
Genre: Chaptered, F/M, Sequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-24
Updated: 2011-05-08
Packaged: 2017-11-06 10:11:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/417664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MacBeth13/pseuds/MacBeth13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Easter at Castle's, some traditions are best when shared.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Sequel/companion piece to Stockboy In The Easter Aisle. Hope everyone's Easter was a fun and safe one! :)  
> Disclaimer: The characters belong to abc, the story is mine written for the amusement of anyone who might read it and my own.

As Easter grew closer and closer Beckett considered cancelling on going to Castle’s for the holiday and she probably would have if not for the fact that Alexis knew she had agreed to come and the teenager had been looking forward to it. Beckett had been looking forward to the event as well, or at least the part of her that wasn’t a borderline-debilitating-nervous-wreck about spending a family holiday with Castle’s family was looking to it.

So on Saturday she spent her morning doing paperwork for the case they had just wrapped and as the day wore on to the afternoon she felt as though someone had released a bunch of butterflies in her stomach. Castle had spent the day with Alexis shopping and ‘getting things ready’, or so he said. She shutdown her computer and double checked her desk before she followed Ryan and Esposito to the elevator. She wished them both a good holiday as they left the precinct and went their separate ways.

Alexis answered the door when Beckett arrived at Castle’s loft, her overnight bag over her shoulder and a shopping bag of things she would need for tomorrow in her hand. Alexis waited for until Beckett had set her bags down on the floor before enveloping the detective in an enthusiastic bear-hug. The affection was gladly returned in kind.

“Mmm, something smells good,” Beckett said after the hug and picking her bags back up. She dropped her overnight bag on the couch for the time being.

“Dad’s making tacos,” Alexis informed. Castle waved with a wooden spoon, smiling, from the kitchenette. Martha was seated at the counter, glass of wine in hand.

“Hey, kiddo!” Martha said with her usual boisterousness. “Would you like a glass?“

“Um, sure, thanks,” Beckett told her and she stowed the shopping bag in the refrigerator while trying to hide it’s contents from Castle, who was trying to peek. She took a seat beside Martha and Alexis at the counter. “Need help with anything?” she asked Castle.

“I think I’ve got most of everything done but if you want to dice up a tomato,” he said sliding her a cutting board and handing her a knife and said tomato.

“Did I ever tell you about the time I used tomatoes in a science experiment?” Alexis asked her after she had washed hands and sat back down.

“I don’t think so,” Beckett said as she skilfully diced the tomato. Alexis regaled her with the tale of the spattered tomatoes until supper was ready and it was enough to put Beckett at ease, the wine helped too.

Castle set up the taco fixings buffet style so they could fill them with whatever they wanted. Over dinner Martha shared with her how the acting school was shaping up. Alexis made a promised phone call to Ashley after dinner and Beckett volunteered to help Castle clean up.

“But you’re a guest,” Martha protested.

“Who just had a very lovely meal and I feel guilty if I don’t help out,” Beckett insisted and Martha retreated with little coaxing to the living room. Helping Castle clean up was very domestic and oddly enjoyable too. She assisted him in setting up the counter for egg dyeing. He had wisely already boiled the eggs earlier, a dozen each, as promised, and she was thankful for his foresight.

“How many cups do we need?!” Beckett asked in wonder as she watched Castle pull quite the number of coffee mugs from the cabinet while she grabbed a handful of spoons from the drawer. How many mugs did he own?!

“We need one for each colour, right? Alexis, what colours are we making this year?” he asked his daughter as she walked back into the kitchen.

“Well, we have to have the basics, ROYGBIV, so: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. Oh, and I want turquoise!”

“Don’t forget we have the neon colours too,” Castle reminded as he shook to boxes of food colouring.

“Okay, so that’s how many?” Alexis asked, having lost count.

“Eleven, assuming you make only the four supplied colours with the neon,” Beckett said as she filled the mugs with hot water, leaving room for vinegar and displacement. “Where’s your vinegar?”

Castle pulled a bottle from the cupboard and presented it like it was a fine bottle of wine.

“Thank you.” They made up the dye in the cups and sat around the counter to get to the fun part. “Oh, I almost forgot!” Beckett said dashing to her bag on the sofa and came back with a box of crayons.

“Uh, what are those for?” Castle asked confused.

“You’ll see,” she told him enigmatically. He kept looking at her like she was nuts as she drew little flowers on one of her eggs. She dropped the egg carefully into the green dye. When she lifted it out a minute or two later they saw the results.

“Whoa, that is so cool!” Alexis said sounding a lot like her father.

“Ditto!” Castle remarked.

“It’s like trying to paint watercolour over crayon, the wax repels the liquid-based colour. Pretty neat, huh?”

“Can I use those?” Alexis asked.

“Sure,” she told her with a smile, “it’s why I brought them.” Alexis used the crayons to make little smiley faces. Castle borrowed the black crayon, much to both Alexis and Beckett’s confusion.

“It’s an alien, see?” he said pulling the egg from the neon green dye. The black crayon made the large eyes and small, straight-line mouth.

“Cute,” Beckett said with a playful smile, then added because she couldn’t resist, “but everyone knows aliens are grey.”

“Thank you for pointing that out, Agent Scully. Might I add the sci-fi reference just adds to your hotness?” Beckett blushed at Castle’s statement in front of his daughter. Alexis, for her part, just grinned from ear-to-ear.

“He’s a cute alien, Dad.”

“Thank you.”

Beckett also made a rainbow egg by half-dipping her egg in yellow then partial dipping it in blue then flipping it and partial dipping it in red, or at least that was the colour she needed next but she couldn’t find it.

“Have you seen the red dye cup?”

“Dad’s hogging it.”

“Am not!”

“Are too, you’ve had that egg in there for like five minutes,” Alexis said matter-of-factly.

“How red do you want it to be?” Beckett asked in bewilderment.

“Not red, exactly, but I had it in the green for too long.”

“Green?! What colour are you trying to make, brown?!”

“Yeah.”

“I’m not going to ask. If it really is brown you’re after why not just use the purple dye, it never comes out right.”

“Ooh, good idea!” he said pulling the already hideously coloured egg out of the red cup and plunking it into the purple cup. The purple dye did the trick and when he retrieved the egg from the dye it was a perfectly gross shade of brown.

“Dad, why would you make an egg look like a turd?” Alexis asked with what could only be described as motherly patience and also with a measure of disgust. Beckett laughed a little too loudly before she clapped a hand over her mouth.

“It-get your mind out of the sewer, it’s a potato!” he said holding up his egg.

“Oh, yeah, sure, we can see that, Castle,” Beckett said dryly making Alexis laugh.

When all the eggs had been dyed they mixed them up in the cartons to help keep the picking of the winners anonymous and fair. In the end Beckett’s rainbow egg and her flower egg, Alexis’ smiley face egg and an egg she made look like a Fabergé, and Castle’s alien egg were picked by Martha for the top five.

“So who won?” Martha asked after making her choices, “and who made the egg that looks like a piece of poo?”

“It’s a _potato_!” Castle emphasized.

“Of course, darling,” Martha patted her son on the cheek. “So who won?” she repeated.

“It’s a tie,” Alexis said with a smile. “These two are mine and those two are Beckett’s.”

“So what is the prize this year?” Martha asked her son.

“Winner’s choice,” he told them.

“Mmm,” Alexis scrunched up her nose in thought, “I can’t decide if I want dinner or to go to the movies. What do you want Beckett?”

“I, ah, I don’t know, I guess I will defer to whatever choice you decide upon.”

“Why choose? We can do dinner and a movie,” Castle said earning him one of Alexis’ radiant smiles and knowing she had played upon his pushover side to get both choices. Alexis pondered over the decision of which restaurant and which movie they would go to for the remainder of the evening and wondered aloud several times on which day they would be going.

Martha took a chair and Castle, Beckett and Alexis piled onto the couch, Alexis in the middle, to watch a movie, The Karate Kid II. It was picked by Alexis which Beckett thought was a bit unusual until Castle explained her recent Dancing With The Stars obsession. Alexis kept shushing both Beckett and Castle when they kept quoting the movie, especially during Daniel’s triumph. When the movie was over Alexis yawned dramatically and claimed she was tired and was going to bed. She hugged her father and Martha, who was headed for another glass of wine, goodnight and surprised Beckett by giving her the same.

“Isn’t it kind of early?” Beckett said after Alexis had gone upstairs, checking her watch. It was only nine-thirty.

“Yeah, she’ll probably talk to Ashley for another hour or so on the phone or on Skype. She also knows I have a special delivery to make.”

“Delivery?”

“When we started using the plastic eggs for hiding I started donating the real eggs to a local group home for kids, they're like an orphanage just smaller. So in this family the Easter Bunny picks up our eggs and hides them for the orphans.”

“That’s a really nice tradition,” Beckett told him, truly touched by the Castle family’s kindness. She was looking at him when she said it and their eyes locked and a moment passed.

“Yeah,” Castle said then cleared his throat and broke eye contact. “So you want to come with me to make the delivery?”

“Sure,” Beckett said and tried to shake herself mentally and ignore whatever it was that just passed between them.

She laughed when Castle wrote on a sticky note ‘it’s a potato’ and stuck it to his brown egg before closing the egg carton. She offered to drive so he could hold the eggs safely on his lap. The workers running the group home were thrilled with the eggs and said that the children would be very happy with them. One of them remembered Castle from previous years and was looking out for him to make the delivery and was thrilled when they came with the eggs.

When they got back to the loft it was all about getting things ready for the morning. Alexis had really gone to bed by the time they returned and Martha was headed there after snooping on the staircase to see how Beckett and her son were getting along. Castle led Beckett into his office after his mother had said goodnight and he made sure the rather tipsy woman had made it upstairs safely.

“So, I think I remembered to get everything you told me,” he said gesturing to the plethora of shopping bags on the floor near his desk.

“And then some,” she said with a crooked grin. Castle always went all-out. “Okay, so let’s un-bag everything and see what we’ve got.” She built the Easter basket for Alexis expertly with Castle watching her the whole time, for future reference she convinced herself. After the basket they got to work on filling the plastic eggs for the hunt with candy. There certainly would be no shortage of candy in this household for a while.

It was past midnight by the time they crept from the office and began hiding the eggs all around the loft’s kitchen, dining area and living room. After all the eggs and then the basket were hidden Beckett tiptoed upstairs to the guest bedroom.

Kate couldn’t help but wonder, as she lay alone in the large bed, what it would be like to be part of a married couple, to be a wife and a mother, and have family traditions, the kind her parents had. To stay up late making Easter for kids the way she and Castle had just done for Alexis. The only thing missing on this night, she thought ruefully, was being able to cuddle while falling asleep, in the early morning hours of the holiday, the way she imagined married folk did. To be able to wake up in the morning to sunshine and the warmth of a lover’s arms. She grabbed one of the extra pillows and covered her face with it to muffle a frustrated noise she wasn’t sure how to define. She tossed and turned for a long while before finally falling asleep with only a cold pillow to cuddle with.  



	2. Chapter 2

When Kate Beckett woke up early Easter morning to a phone call from her father wishing her a happy Easter the rest of the Castle household was still asleep. She kind of figured they would be, had planned on it actually. She got ready for the day and made herself look presentable then crept downstairs to the kitchen. She started a pot of coffee then removed the shopping bag from the refrigerator that she had put there the night before. They were most of the things she would need to make cinnamon rolls with orange icing, the rest of the ingredients she had slipped into the shopping list she had given Castle, all according to the recipe her mother used to make. Kate had just finished the rolls and were putting them in the oven when Castle emerged from his bedroom.  
  
Kate had to remember to breathe. Castle, under normal circumstances, was an attractive man, and after last night’s wandering thoughts, Rick Castle on this morning was a dangerously sexual tour de force to behold. Morning stubble just added sex-appeal to his ‘ruggedly handsome’ look and his eyes seemed more blue in the morning sunlight. His hair wasn’t combed yet and was sticking every which way but it added a level of adorableness and a desire to rake her fingers through it and pull his head down to hers and kiss those pouty lips of his.  
  
“Good morning,” Castle said breaking her train of thought. She blushed and looked away from him to grab a couple of clean mugs from the dishwasher. When she turned back around to place the mugs on the counter he was watching her with a smile on his face that was Cheshire Cat-like, as if he read her mind and knew what she had been thinking. To make it worse he stretched, his arm and chest muscles flexing, as she was pouring the coffee and she nearly poured it all over the counter. He bit his bottom lip so he wouldn’t laugh at her. So he was doing it on purpose. Well, two could play at that game. Beckett opened some of the bottom cabinet doors and bent over at the waist to look inside, purposefully putting her fine assets in her tight jeans out there provocatively.  
  
“What, eh-hem, what are you looking for?” Castle asked, his voice husky.  
  
“I need a mixing bowl and a whisk,” she told him. He came up behind her and she stood up straight, still keeping her back facing him, not that she had room to turn around anyway. He purposefully reached around her to open the drawer next to her and pulled out a whisk. “Thank you,” she said taking the proffered whisk and just their fingers brushing each other’s in that charged moment was enough to feel like an electric shock.  
  
Castle backed away and dug out a mixing bowl and placed it on the counter. He seemed to have shifted gears yet again, retreating a little. He played with fire and felt it burn a little and pulled back from the flames, or so it seemed to Kate. A shadow of something crossed his face. Kate was disappointed with the sudden change but couldn’t disagree with his logic, what had she been thinking?  
  
Castle watched as Beckett went about making the glaze for the cinnamon rolls. He chose to sit on the other side of the counter, reminding himself that space was probably wise, or at least proper. It was a battle he kept having within his own mind, two sides of his brain waging war and his heart ached either way. He was trying to be the gentleman and allow Kate to be happy, even if it wasn’t with him. Kate Beckett belonged to another man, a decent man, and he’d respect that certain boundaries shouldn’t be crossed…right? Didn’t mean he couldn’t look, though, he reasoned with himself. As she whisked the ingredients together he admired how the motion made certain parts jiggle. Hey, he was a red-blooded straight man, not looking would be abnormal. There was no harm in looking, unless of course she caught him doing it, but whatever had transpired between them a few moments ago was dangerous. He was still trying to sort out what it meant.  
  
“Mmm, something smells like heaven,” Alexis came down the stairs sniffing the air.  
  
“Morning, pumpkin,” Castle said and when she sat down in another tall chair beside him he kissed her temple.  
  
“Morning, Dad, Kate,” Alexis said and Beckett smiled a greeting. “Grams will be down in a bit, she’s just in search of some aspirin.”  
  
“So, shall we start the hunt before or after breakfast?” Castle asked.  
  
“Cinnamon rolls should be almost ready,” Beckett told him.  
  
“Cinnamon rolls?” Alexis asked excitedly.  
  
“Mmm-hmm, my mom’s recipe.”  
  
“Oh,” Martha moaned holding her head as she joined them.  
  
“You okay?” Beckett asked her, genuinely concerned.  
  
“Oh, yeah, just had a little too much wine last night.”  
  
“That’s nothing new,” Castle quipped which earned him a solid smack on the arm from his mother.  
  
“I’ll be fine after I’ve had a cup of coffee and whatever is making that heavenly scent coming from the oven.” Beckett poured Martha a cup of coffee then turned around to pull the cinnamon rolls from the oven. She spied Castle eyeing the bowl of icing longingly in her peripheral.  
  
“Don’t even think about it, Castle, or you will lose whatever digit you put in the icing,” she said as she set the tray of cinnamon rolls on a trivet on top of the counter above the oven. Castle’s hand had been hovering above the bowl and he quickly snatched his hand back and tried to see how she had known. Beckett took the bowl of icing away to ice the rolls, then, when she was done, she let him have the bowl back. Castle used his finger to lick the remaining icing out of the bowl, smiling happily, his eyes glittering with mirth. Sometimes the nine year old finding his sugar-high fix was adorable.  
  
They ate breakfast cheerfully and when they were done Alexis’ Easter egg hunt began. She already spotted a few while they were eating so she had a few easy grabs right in the off. When she was done she had only missed five eggs that Beckett and Castle had to re-find. Alexis loved her basket and hugged her father then Beckett and, just so she wouldn’t feel left out, her grandmother. They watched the parade on television and midway through Beckett got up to refill her coffee cup. Martha followed her to the kitchen.  
  
“So how is your dad spending his holiday? It’s not too late to invite one more, you know.”  
  
“Oh, yeah, well he and his golfing buddies made plans so it’s good,” she smiled.  
  
“And Josh?” Martha asked over the rim of her coffee mug.  
  
“Oh, uh, he’s…he’s in Japan with a group of doctors,” Kate said stirring her coffee and looking down at it.  
  
“Uh oh,” Martha picked up on the significance of that fact. “Didn’t he just get back not that long ago? Was this trip something you were okay with?”  
  
“Yeah, I guess, I mean it’s not up to me to decide whether he goes or not. I would rather he had stayed but it was something he felt he needed to do. Helping people is what he does, asking him not to go would be like asking him to give up a part of who he is. That wouldn’t be fair.”  
  
“And leaving you alone is?”  
  
“No, which is why we decided to end our relationship, amicably. I’m sure I’ll hear from him as a friend but as far as anything romantic…it’s over.”  
  
Martha patted Kate’s hand consolingly, “I’m sorry it didn’t work out, kiddo. You are a very smart and beautiful woman, if I may say so, and there are plenty of other fishies in the sea.”  
  
“Thanks,” Kate gave the elder woman a weak smile. She risked a glance over to the couch and saw Castle’s head quickly turn to face the television again. So he must have heard some or all of the conversation. What thoughts were running through his mind, she wondered?  
  
Whatever he may have been thinking or feeling he gave no clue or hint. They finished watching the parade then played a game of Apples to Apples, which Castle won. They began cooking at a little past noon, the Easter meal would be a late lunch/early supper, with cheese & crackers and a veggie tray to snack on to tide them over until the main meal.  
  
“Do you mind if I call Ashley?” Alexis asked her father after a few minutes as she snacked on veggies and dip. “I know it’s a holiday so I’ll keep it short,” she gave Castle pleading eyes that any parent would have to have steel willpower to resist.  
  
“Sure, as long as it’s not an hour long marathon phone call.”  
  
“Thank you!” she ran off to go to her room to make the phone call. Martha had since retreated to her own room to her computer to make a special Easter message video for her Myspace followers, or so she said. That left Castle and Beckett alone in the kitchen.  
  
“Why didn’t you tell me about you and Josh?” Castle asked after a few minutes of silence.  
  
“I don’t know,” she shrugged her slim shoulders. “I guess I didn’t know how to broach the subject. It’s not like it’s a casual conversation topic down at the precinct.”  
  
“Yeah, I guess it’s just that I would have thought you’d want someone to talk about it with.”  
  
“I do have friends, Castle. I needed time to process it on my own but if I wanted to I could’ve gone to Lanie.”  
  
“You could’ve come to me,” Rick said leaning his back against the counter and watching her with his ‘I’m being serious now’ gaze. She was carefully avoiding making eye contact as she opened a can of pineapple rings.  
  
“No, I couldn’t and I think you know why.”  
  
“Maybe I don’t. Enlighten me,” he said taking the jar of cherries and opening them, just to give his hands something to do.  
  
“Because it wouldn’t have been about you consoling me about my break-up with Josh as a friend…okay, it wouldn’t only be that,” she added to be fair. “We’ve been walking a tightrope of late. The conversation would have turned into a discussion about us,” she said bluntly, truthfully.  
  
“Probably. Is that a bad thing?”  
  
“Then, yeah. I needed to figure out where my heart really was and deal with what had happened. I needed to be honest with myself about why I stayed with Josh so long when I knew it wasn’t going to work.”  
  
“And?”  
  
“To feel alive, to feel wanted, to avoid anything too serious, to feel safe because it was a careful relationship.”  
  
“Careful?”  
  
“The kind that isn’t about taking risks, the kind that doesn’t hurt too much.”  
  
“And…what am I?” Rick asked afraid of the answer he already knew.  
  
“Not,” Kate answered with a wry smile. “We keep having this pattern of never being on the same wave-length and all we end up doing is hurting each other. Me hurting you with Tom, you hurting me with Gina, me again with J-”  
  
“You were with Demming still and I-” Rick cut her off but didn’t finish the sentence as he caught the look on Kate’s face. “That day, when you came into the party, you acted differently, you wanted to say something to me,” he said with new-found realization.  
  
“It doesn’t matter,” she said turning away from him.  
  
“It _does_ matter, Kate!” Rick made her face him again.  
  
“I had broken up with Tom, was even entertaining the idea of joining you in the Hamptons.”  
  
“Then Gina showed up,” Rick sighed, a slew of ‘if only’s and ‘what could’ve been’s running through his mind. He now had a new better understanding of her anger when he returned in the fall.  
  
“Maybe it was for the best, maybe it saved us from making a mistake,” she said half-heartedly turning her attention back to getting the ham ready.  
  
“What do you mean?”  
  
“Maybe there’s a reason it didn’t work. I mean, do you still feel the same as you did when you asked me to go with you to the Hamptons?”  
  
“No,” he said then saw her shoulders slump a little. “I feel more.” Kate looked up at him at that statement. “I’ve had to watch you with Josh. When I was with Gina, the relationship with her, it felt…‘careful’,” he said with a half-amused grin, “but I realized I didn’t want careful, I didn’t want ordinary, I wanted dangerous and I wanted…magic.” He really did smile fully that time. “So I ended it with Gina. I watched you with Josh and, I gotta admit, it hurt. Not the way I felt when you were with Demming, that was envy, this…this was like someone was taking ropes wrapped around me and constricting my chest with them, and as much as it hurt I realized something. I realized that in spite of that pain what I wanted didn’t matter so much, what mattered to me more was to want whatever would make you happy.” Rick took a cleansing breath, not believing he’d managed to say all of the words that before had only been realized in twelve point font on a glowing screen. He watched Kate warily, afraid of how she’d react. She was staring at him wide-eyed and he swore he could see them glimmer with unshed tears.  
  
“Even if that meant I was with Josh and not you?” Kate asked, her voice soft. Rick nodded his head in a solemn affirmative and she gave him a watery smile in return. “And now that I’m not with Josh? I mean, what happens now?”  
  
“What would you like to happen now?” he asked her with a smouldering look in his eyes that made her breath hitch.  
  
“Rick, I-”  
  
“Hey, guys, ham in the oven yet?” Alexis called out from the staircase and she had a skip to her step as she made her way to the kitchen. She hadn’t noticed yet that she had just interrupted a serious conversation.  
  
“Almost,” Beckett told her as she grabbed a bottle of cloves and gave a smile she hoped was convincing.  
  
“Call with Ashley go well?” Castle asked with the same kind of smile Beckett wore.  
  
“Yeah,” Alexis drew out the word, suspicion in her voice as she looked to Beckett then back to her father. “Am I interrupting something?”  
  
“No,” Castle lied and his daughter glared at him not convinced. “Nothing that can’t wait, in fact maybe time to ponder is a good thing,” he said cryptically making Alexis even more confused.  
  
“Castle,” Beckett said his name and he winced out of habit even though it wasn’t her usual chastising way she said his name when she was mad. “Can you open the oven door?”  
  
“Ready to put it in?” he asked. “The ham,” he stressed when she gave him a look that attempted to be consternation but failed when the sides of her mouth quirked up in a smile. Instead of opening the oven he lifted the ham and Beckett opened the oven. Alexis leaned on the counter and watched the two of them carefully for a few minutes as they worked in silence.  
  
“Anything I can do to help?” Alexis asked after a while of watching both adults work, the silence had become awkward.  
  
“You can help me with the potatoes,” Castle told her, “but first, why don’t you turn on the stereo, it’s entirely too quiet in here.”  
  
Kate blushed and didn’t look up from opening a can of sweet potatoes. Alexis chose wisely in her music selection, tuning in to an oldies station. She came back into the kitchen doing a little dance and bobbing her head to the music.  
  
“It’s just like that movie,” she smiled widely. The radio was playing ‘If You Wanna Be Happy’ by Jimmie Soul. It was the tension breaker they needed and soon they were all laughing and enjoying themselves, singing along to the song.  
  
“ ‘Say, man!’” Beckett took one speaking part.  
  
“ ‘Hey, baby!’” Castle took the other part.  
  
“ ‘I saw your wife the other day!’”  
  
“ ‘Yeah!’”  
  
“ ‘Yeah, and she’s ugly!”  
  
“ ‘Yeah, she’s ugly but she sure can cook, baby!”  
  
“ ‘Yeah, all right!’”  
  
They all sang the chorus together and Alexis and Kate went into hysterics when the song got to the ‘la la las’ and Rick hammed it up and attempted to hit the high notes. Martha came down after hearing the commotion.  
  
“What was that?” she asked looking at the three younger people in the kitchen.  
  
“What was what?” Castle asked, all innocence.  
  
“There was music and singing,” Martha motioned with her hands as she spoke, “and then it sounded like a cat getting stepped on crossed with the Aflac duck.” Martha’s comment made Alexis and Beckett laugh so hard they were leaning into each other.  
  
“It wasn’t that bad,” Castle said sounding wounded.  
  
“It wasn’t natural either,” Martha intoned. Castle pulled mocking faces when she looked away. “One of these days your face will freeze like that.”  
  
“Hasn’t yet,” he said with a cheeky grin.  
  
“Hah,” she harrumphed. “Hand me some plates and cutlery and I’ll set the table, Mr. Smarty Pants.”  
  
When it was finally time to eat the table practically groaned under the weight of all the food. There was the ham, beautifully glazed and decorated with the pineapple, cherries and cloves. There was also garlic and parsley mashed potatoes (Castle mashed while Beckett seasoned), corn, pickles, olives, deviled eggs (what was Easter if you didn’t eat eggs?), cranberry sauce, green bean casserole and candied sweet potatoes.  
  
“So are the sweet potatoes considered dessert or a side-dish?” Alexis asked Beckett, who made the dish.  
  
“We always made it a side-dish so we could still have pie later for dessert.” Beckett smiled and laughed softly, “my grandmother hated this dish. She used to say it was an undignified dish only meant to be enjoyed by the uncultured. Ever since she said it my mom insisted on making it for every holiday.”  
  
“What’s not to love about it? It’s got sweet potatoes and butter and brown sugar and cinnamon and mini coloured marshmallows,” Castle said then took a bite of the side that was more confection than nutrition.  
  
“It’s always been one of my favourites,” Kate smiled and closed her eyes to enjoy a bite.  
  
After they ate Martha offered to clean up since Beckett and Castle had cooked, Alexis helped her grandmother. Everyone was way too full to eat dessert just yet and Alexis insisted Beckett stay to watch some of the Wizard of Oz marathon. A debate started as they were watching over whether it was true or not that one of the Munchkins was hanging from a noose in the trees.  
  
“It is not an urban legend, it’s true!” Castle insisted.  
  
“Then where’s the proof?” Alexis asked her arms crossed defiantly.  
  
“In the- it is true,” Castle pouted. “Beckett, what do you think?”  
  
“It’s a big bird, like an Emu, Castle, not a suicidal Munchkin.”  
  
“It was not Big Bird, it’s-”  
  
“Why don’t we call a truce and slice up that pie?” Martha suggested.  
  
After eating so much food Beckett opted to eat just a small slice of Martha’s key lime pie (she bought it pre-made and she decorated it with cool whip) so as to not hurt her feelings. It was getting late and Beckett had to convince herself as well as Alexis that she really should be getting home. Alexis followed her upstairs to retrieve her bag and back downstairs again. Beckett smiled that she had yet another Castle following her, like father-like daughter.  
  
“I’m so glad you could join us,” Martha said as she hugged her by the door.  
  
“Me too.”  
  
“I wish you didn’t have to go yet,” Alexis said giving Kate one of her all-enveloping hugs the detective was growing quite fond of.  
  
“I have some things to do at home before heading to work again tomorrow. Besides, if I don’t leave now I might never leave,” she quipped giving Alexis a final extra squeeze. Alexis just looked up at her with a Cheshire-cat grin that she had clearly inherited from her father that said she would be perfectly happy with that idea. It made Beckett think that maybe spending the holiday was a gesture that sent all sorts of confusing messages, not just to Alexis but to Castle and Beckett themselves as well. It sure made a muddle out of things, but if she were being honest with herself a part of Beckett wanted to stay too.  
  
Martha engaged Alexis in a conversation about Ashley to distract her (she went a little too willingly) so Castle could have a moment alone with Beckett. He double checked over his shoulder before speaking and even then he kept his voice low.  
  
“I haven’t forgotten about our unfinished conversation, you know.”  
  
“Yeah,” Kate said twirling a lock of her hair at her temple, “neither have I.”  
  
“And?” he asked, his voice, still low, was naturally sexy and he injected just the right amount of hopefulness.  
  
“And…I don’t know. Why don’t we take it day by day and see where we end up?”  
  
“All right, I guess that sounds fair enough,” he said but he still looked a little crestfallen.  
  
“See you at work tomorrow?” she asked, worried she might have stepped back when she needed to leap forward and that there might be rift between them again.  
  
“Sure,” he said with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. He opened the door for her and she stepped past him then spun on her heel.  
  
“Castle?”  
  
“Hmm?”  
  
“Thanks for a lovely holiday, I really enjoyed spending it with you, Rick,” she said and before she could let her mind overrule her heart and chicken out she kissed him on the cheek. She pulled away slowly and for a few pounding heartbeats their mouths were so close she could feel his breath on her face.  
  
“I really enjoyed it too,” he said and the boyish smile on his face reached his eyes that seemed to be a deeper shade of blue than they usually were.  
  
“Goodnight.”  
  
“Until tomorrow,” Castle said and he watched her walk out of sight before he closed the door.  
  
Later on that night Alexis was in her pajamas sulking on the couch. Castle flopped down beside her and pulled her in for a side-hug and kissed the top of her head.  
  
“What’s the matter, pumpkin, didn’t you enjoy Easter?”  
  
“Yeah, I did. I enjoyed it a lot,” she told him but he could tell there was still something she wasn’t saying.  
  
“But?”  
  
“Not really a ‘but’, more like an ‘I wish’.” Castle gave her a look that said go on. “I wish it didn’t have to be a holiday to have days like today, I mean with Detective Beckett,” she sighed.  
  
“Well, we still have a dinner  & a movie night to look forward to,” he said.  
  
“Yeah, I guess there is that, but what happens after that? Will we get more days like today? I like it when we get to spend time with Kate. I just…it’s nice. She makes things even more fun and she seems to like visiting with us too, right? She seemed happy but it’s like she’s purposefully putting up barriers,” Alexis sighed. Not for the first time Castle wondered in awe of just how smart and observant his daughter was.  
  
“Beckett doesn’t let people in very often and she’s had her guard up for a very long time. Letting that down that guard and allowing people in isn’t easy.”  
  
“But she likes us, right?”  
  
“Yeah, I’m sure she adores you, honey, who wouldn’t?” Castle smiled trying to ease his daughter’s insecurity. Alexis had obviously been thinking on the subject of Beckett for a while and had formed more of an attachment to her than he thought. Not that he could blame her.  
  
“So what you’re saying is that as she gets closer to someone she instinctively pushes them away as sort of a defense?”  
  
“Yeah, exactly like that.”  
  
“I wish Kate could be happy and not feel like she has to distance herself from us. I wish there was some way to have more days like today and show her how much we care. Isn’t there some way to do that, Dad?” Alexis asked snuggling into his chest.  
  
“I’m working on it, pumpkin,” Castle kissed the top of her head again and breathed in the scent of her strawberry shampoo. “I’m working on it.”


End file.
